More Of The Same Really

Long time no see. Last time we talked, I announced that I’d be stepping away and selling off everything I accomplished with this site and the podcast. I’m happy to report that not only have I sold the content I generated to an awesome buyer, they have requested that I continue about my business with WPTavern, the forum and the podcast as if nothing has happened. The only distinct change that has happened and will be the only thing to happen for the foreseeable future is that the site will be owned by someone else. I am in charge of maintaining and operating the site as I normally would. At the request of the new owner, the terms of the deal as well as who the new owner is is under wraps.

So what this means is that I’ll be re-opening the forum as well as upgrading it to get it going again. I’ll also be conducting an episode or two of WordPress Weekly in the near future and I’ll be writing about WordPress again here on the site. I’m sticking around without any influence by the new owner as to what to write, say, or do. In all honesty, it’s a pretty weird deal on paper but it’s a deal that’s allowed me the greatest flexibility as well as allowing me to fulfill a couple of financial obligations that sprang up. For instance, I was recently able to put money down on a used truck. You don’t know how much you need a truck until you become a home owner!

There is one change that I’ll be making. Thanks to the deal, I’m going to remove all display advertising from the site and will not need to pursue affiliate links in future reviews I do. While any additional income is great, writing without the weight of needing money is actually a huge weight off my shoulders.

Before we get back to regular programming around here, I want to thank all of you for your comments on my good bye post. It became obvious that the audience of WPTavern values my work much more than I do. So many of you wanted me to stick around in some form or fashion while many of you were pretty darn sad to see WPWeekly to go by the wayside. It’s comments like those that convinced me of negotiating a deal that allowed me to stay on and manage the site.

I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll be publishing posts or that I’ll be active in the forum every day or producing a podcast every weekend but I am guaranteeing that I’ll be behind the bar, taking your orders and continuing to talk about this thing called WordPress which is pretty cool publishing software.

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33 Comments

W00t! This is super-dooper, fabulistic news yuss!
Nice to see you are going to be able to stick around now Jeffro. Sadness over now – we don’t have to be miserable any more. This is really great news. Welcome home!

Congratulations! That’s terrific news, Jeffro. I look forward to having WordPress Weekly back. I understood why you made the decision you did–we all have to pay the rent–but I think you did, indeed, undervalue your contribution to the community.

It’s great that WordPress journalism is becoming something you can do for a living. Way to go!

On the flip side, this arrangement sounds extremely weird. Are you going to announce the new owner later, or is the agreement in fact that this should never be disclosed? If that’s the case, it kind of conflicts with the open philosophy that drives WordPress.

That is such great news, a WordPress miracle it feels like. Just show what an amazing group we are all part of. I am just so thrilled for you and impressed that someone put their money where you mouth is!

I’m so happy to hear about your news Jeffro. You put in so much time and effort into WpTavern and WordPress Weekly. I’m so glad someone has come to the table to help out! Looking forward to your next podcast and the things to come!

Jeff, I’m very happy to hear this news. I’m glad you were able to get such a good deal worked out. Thanks to your mystery benefactor (who I am willing to guess the identify of just not publicly :-)) for helping you find a way to keep this going.

Glad it worked out for the best. I’m excited to see what you come up with next. Heck, maybe I can finally do some writing again about WP media management *cough*. I’m glad WPTavern lives to write another day.